Starsa slipped out of the room with Jayme right behind her. She turned to say, “Better clean up in here in case they come in.”

Titus gave her an affirmative signal and Jayme left, thinking everything was at least partially under control. But the medical team took an unusually long time examining the burns, which both girls admitted came from Starsa’s contact with a malfunctioning proton device. They were worried about the traces of radiation they found in her skin caused by the beta decay. They had to explain that the breakdown was supposed to take place inside the lead‑chamber, during the spontaneous transformation of the neutrons in the nucleus of the sulfur atom that would release the protons. Jayme thought it was fascinating the way the medics traced the exact amplitude of the beta decay, comparing the magnetic polarization of the nucleus against the spin vector of the electrons.

The medics checked Jayme, too, and when there were no traces of beta decay in her skin cells, they asked to see the accident site. Jayme was impressed by their through investigation of the room. But the others had already removed the slagged table, and the blackened wall was covered by a colorful bedspread that usually adorned Bobbie Ray’s bed. Jayme wondered why she hadn’t thought of putting up some sort of decoration in this half of the room. Maybe then she wouldn’t have been haunted for so many months by the departure of Elma. That’s why she had offered the space for their Quad project, to give the others a good reason to come over and keep her company.

“You’re clean,” the medic finally told Titus. To Jayme, she said, “Good work on that cut. Nice edges for an amateur.” As she murmured her surprised thanks, the medic added, “You know we have to report this.”

Bobbie Ray flung himself down on the bed again. “Report everything! It doesn’t matter. The review board will know soon enough.”

“Take that up with the Superintendent,” the medic said with a shrug. She gave Starsa a reassuring pat. “Just get some rest and you’ll feel better. You’re already 80 percent acclimated, so next year should be much easier on you.”

“Thanks,” Starsa said as the medic left. “Great, I’ll be raring to go and we’ll all be stuck here again. We’ll never get off‑world assignments if we have to stay first‑year cadets. It’s humiliating!”

Jayme glanced around. “Where’s Moll? With T’Rees?”

Rom shrugged. “She cleaned up the debris and packed a few pieces in that bag of hers. Then she left.”

“You let her go?” At Titus and Bobbie Ray’s nod, Jayme exploded, “How could you? She got hit on the head! Something could be wrong with her.”

“She’s fine!” Bobbie Ray said defensively. “She was poking around in that mess, muttering about acid catalysts and oxidation. I figured it was some kind of astrophysics thing.”

“Do you see any stars in here?” Jayme demanded. “She could have been delusional. And none of you even noticed.”

“Hey, she can take care of herself,” Titus protested. “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen anyonetake better care of themselves. We better start worrying about what we’re going to show that review board tomorrow.”

“Today,” Starsa corrected, chewing on her thumbnail.

Titus glanced at the chrono. “Great, today. The day we all get put back a year.”

Jayme was shifting back and forth uneasily. “I think we should look for Moll Enor. Something could be wrong with her. It doesn’t sound like she was thinking rationally.”

“Maybe you should start looking for an explanation for all this,” Bobbie Ray pointed out. “It was your idea.”

“Myidea?” Jayme repeated incredulously. “I wanted to use an antiproton chain. Didn’t I, Titus?”

“We both did.”

Starsa rubbed her eyes sleepily. “I thought using a proton chain would be safer. I guess I was wrong.”

No one could chastise Starsa when she looked so strung‑out. Reoh was quick to assure her, “We all worked on the project. Who knows why it failed? You can’t blame yourself.”

Starsa still looked worried, an unusual sight. “Maybe we could get B’Elanna to look at it. She’s just down two floors.”

“You mean Torres?”Bobbie Ray asked incredulously. “Great! Do you want to make things worse?”

“Torres is a great engineer,” Starsa insisted. “Better than any of us.”

Jayme silently agreed, having watched, mouth hanging open along with the rest of the first‑year engineering students, as Torres argued with Professor Chapman over material stress levels and Starfleet safety protocols.

“It’s no use, even Torres couldn’t fix this,” Jayme told Starsa. “You should go to bed before you fall down.” Jayme helped her quadmate back to her room and into bed, leaving Titus and Bobbie Ray to mull over the mess they were in, with Nev Reoh hovering in the background offering useless suggestions with infinite hope, as always.

Jayme didn’t go back to her room after Starsa had lain down. First she made sure T’Rees would keep one eye on his roommate, then she went down to the transporter room to check the logs. There was no record in the short‑term memory of Moll Enor beaming out of the Quad tower. She checked the gardens around the Quad, asking other cadets if they had seen Moll, until she realized that she had been busy with Starsa and the medics for over an hour during the beta treatment. She rushed back to the transporter and found a record of Moll’s transport in the long‑term log. The Trill had gone to the Academy Database.

When Jayme reached the Database, the cadet staffing the entrance confirmed that Moll Enor had arrived a couple of hours ago, acting focused and preoccupied, as usual. Jayme felt a little better, but she searched through the mostly empty rooms of the Database, too worried to give up and go back to the Quad, but not so upset that she wanted to make the situation worse by notifying security.

Jayme placed a message on the network, but Moll didn’t respond. She checked the transporter logs of the Academy Database when she was certain Moll was no longer there, but there was no record of the Trill beaming out. She wandered along the cobblestone walkways between the Quads for a while longer before she finally gave up.

As she slipped back into their Quad, trying not to wake everyone, Titus, Bobbie Ray, and Nev Reoh were waiting in her room.

“Well?” Nev Reoh asked eagerly. “What did you find out?”

“I couldn’t find her,” Jayme admitted. “She went to the Database and then disappeared.”

“What?” Bobbie Ray exclaimed. “You’ve been looking for Moll all this time? What about our Quad project?”

“What about it?” Jayme countered. “It blew up.”

“But why?”Titus insisted, stepping closer. “We have to tell them something–”

“How am I supposed to know why it blew up? That would take weeks of reductive analysis!”

Bobbie Ray shrugged helplessly, turning away. “Well, I guess that’s it. Might as well get a few hours rest before the review board.”

“You’re going to sleep again?” Titus demanded.

“I’ll stay up,” Nev Reoh offered.

“For what?” Jayme asked. “There’s nothing we can do now. Even if I did figure out what went wrong–that the velociter malfunctioned or the gas streams were mixed at too high a temperature–what does that give us? Nothing! We’ll have to take the bits and pieces in to show the review board that we tried. Then our careers are in their hands.”

When Titus rolled out of bed the next morning, having never really gone to sleep, Bobbie Ray was briskly snoring on the other side of the room. That guy could fall asleep anywhere, anytime.

“Get up!” Titus ordered, roughly prodding the large mound beneath the blankets. “Doesn’t anything ever get to you?”

“You do,” Bobbie Ray assured him, raising his head and peering through sleep‑heavy eyes. “I’m rooming with Starsa or Jayme next year.”

“How can you lie there and act so blasй about being left back?”